A Cautionary Tale
by A Bored Little Writer
Summary: Being a student sucks. There's the drama, fighting horrible monsters, school nurses plotting the end of the world, and, after all that, a pop quiz that accounts for twenty percent of your final grade. Watch familiar faces struggle to survive it all under the tutelage of someone new.
1. Maka1

_Maka [1]_

* * *

There was nothing about school that Maka Albarn did not love.

Pop quiz on a Monday morning? Please!

A ten-page essay on the nature of the soul? Would you like that single or double-spaced?

An exam no student had gotten full marks on in the history of Shibusen? Challenge accepted!

Her problem was not, had never been, with school.

It was the people.

Her fellow classmates who would prefer to pass notes rather than take them.

Her idiot partner who would, without fail, mock her for her hard work.

Her idiot partner's obnoxious friend who disrupted class like clockwork.

Her idiot partner's(a theme was emerging here) attempts to cheat that threatened her own academic standing.

And then there was him.

The thing about her day that she dreaded most.

She should have swelled with pride knowing that her father was the Death Scythe. Instead, her face burned from a mixture of shame and embarrassment as the man who'd broken up her family showered her with praise in the middle of class. She silently wished that he would simply ignore her rather than show what kind of man he really was to all of her classmates. What he'd done to her family was unforgivable, but even that hurt didn't match what it felt like to hear her 'peers' snickering at him.

If he knew what they said about him, said about her, because of it…

It was at times like those she was grateful for her idiot partner.

'Family sucks', he'd said to her after a particular dreadful morning of begging and whining from that man. It was one of the only times he'd ever said anything she could interpret as being about his life before Shibusen and, fighting back tears, she'd nodded.

At times like those, she realized that her connection to him was the only one she really had left. She'd been thrown into the ocean when her family had fallen apart. Her father, the one she'd been so proud of as a girl, spending most nights at the very same type of places that had cost him his marriage and her mother… The mother she loved and hated. The mother she admired and wanted, and never wanted, to be like.

The mother who had abandoned her.

Soul was the one who was there for her when she needed someone. Her idiot partner kept her head above water.

She couldn't thank him enough so she never actually said it.

That and, if she ever did, she was sure he'd make fun of her.

Because he was a jerk.

Her introspection wasn't without reason though. Well, not that a girl needed a reason to take stock of her life and everything in it that made her want to scream.

It was (finally!) the end of summer break which meant she could return to her favorite place on Earth regardless of who she had to share it with.

As she ascended(skipped) up the steps, her partner was there to bring her down like always.

"You shouldn't jump around like that. No one wants to see those granny panties."

She pirouetted on the step she'd just reached and swung her book into his head. "Shut up." She couldn't quite bring herself to hit him as hard as usual. She was in far too good a mood for that.

"Tch."

Which, in Soul-speak, meant something along the lines of 'It was just a joke' which was another reason she hadn't sent him careening off the staircase to his death.

She didn't hear him say anything else after that. Whether that was because he knew she wouldn't tolerate it today, she'd left him behind in her hurry to get class, or something else she didn't know or particularly care.

She stepped through the entrance way to her class and took a deep breath…

"Sleep in, _Albarn_?"

Something inside of her died. She clenched her teeth and, slowly, turned to look at where the one who addressed her sat. She wasn't surprised to see his head was as remarkably shiny as when she'd last seen it.

" _Ox_." She greeted through teeth clenched so tight she was sure her gums would start bleeding any second.

"I've been here for almost an hour."

That smug voice… She fought the urge to crack his skull open with her book. Soul was grating and an insensitive jerk sometimes, but he had nothing on their cue ball spearman. "I didn't think it was a race." She couldn't keep herself from snapping.

"If it was, you would have lost."

Deep breaths… She had to think of something nice. Puppies. Kittens-wait, no. That just pissed her off even more. "A good thing it wasn't then." She wouldn't let him ruin her first day back. She stomped up the steps and found her usual seat.

Ox turned in his seat and adjusted those ridiculous…what were they? Not glasses, not goggles… "I guess so. Though, the same can't be said for that last test we took, can it?"

She could feel her hand drifting to her thickest, heaviest book. She had done everything she could to forget about that. She'd scored a perfect 100, known she'd had, and still… The image of his name above hers' and the number 101 surfaced in her mind and she did everything she could to force it back down.

"Hey Ox."

She, and her rival, looked when her partner made his presence known. He had fallen behind like she'd thought so he was only just walking through the door.

"You need to get yourself a girlfriend."

It was an off-handed comment, but one aimed right where it would hurt her rival the most. She could have kissed Soul if the idea didn't make her want to puke, set herself on fire, and then throw herself off the roof.

She watched as Ox's jaw went slack and color rushed to his cheeks. He started to get up out of his seat when… His partner, the one with the visor with the creepily robotic demeanor, reached over and grabbed his arm. The two exchanged looks, though how they could communicate anything to each other wearing those stupid things on her face she had no idea, before the mostly bald meister sank down in his seat with a huff.

She gave a small nod to her partner, trying to keep the grin off her face and failing, while he just sat down with a smug look on his face that somehow didn't irritate her near as much as when Ox wore it.

As time passed, more and more people joined them in the classroom but she paid them no mind. Her friends were few after all.

When one of them finally did enter, she had to fight down a giggle as she saw she was having to pull along her half-asleep meister. She wasn't surprised that he had slept in… if anything, she'd be surprised that he actually came to the first day of school after a break.

When she had first met Tsubaki, she had wanted to sit as far from the other girl as possible. After all, they were practically night and day in terms of certain… qualities. She'd been horrified when Soul had started his bromance with the reverse-ninja since it would mean being around her, but… It took just a single conversation to realize that disliking the soft-spoken Japanese girl would have taken much more effort than just having her as a friend.

It had been another blow to her pride when she realized that that the other girl was beautiful in another way she wasn't. She was patient, kind, and, above all else, accepting of others' shortcomings. She practically had to be given her partner.

"Good morning."

"Morning."

The two exchanged greetings as she took her place at her other side while her partner stumbled his way into his own.

There was just one group left from what she could tell…

"Weeeheheehehe!"

A blonde came bouncing, and Maka did mean _bouncing_ much to her complete and utter indifference regardless of what anyone else or even she thought, into the classroom.

"PATTY!"

A voice shrieked and the son of their Headmaster, a god, came chasing after. "You were supposed to enter at the same time as Liz and I!" His attempts at getting a girl with zero attention spam to do as he wanted were as successful as ever. The elder Thompson sister was the last of the trio to enter, shaking her head and sighing. She looked like a mother who'd given up trying to control either of her children.

Their newest additions were… interesting, to say the least. When he wasn't freaking out, Kid was perhaps the only male outside of her partner that she considered a friend. His partners were where she had difficulty.

She was straight as an arrow; they were former criminals.

Liz liked men, clothes, and… a lot of things that frankly just intimidated her and Patty liked… Maka honestly wasn't sure that she'd ever understand her. Still, it wasn't as if they had ever been unpleasant.

She thought, perhaps, once she figured out this whole 'girl' thing then maybe at least she and Liz could become closer.

Though, a small(large) part of her didn't believe that would ever happen.

She knew what was coming next now that all the students had arrived. She listened, and prayed, to hear someone flying down the hall outside in a rolling chair. A silly thing to hope for, but the alternative was…

The door opened and she saw a flash of red hair.

Sighing, she opened her book and prepared to lift it…

Had her father gotten shorter?

For once, she didn't feel the desire to hush the whispers of her classmates as an unfamiliar face walked to the front of the classroom and picked up the class roster from the table.

"Good morning. We will begin by taking attendance."

It seemed that there was a new teacher at Shibusen.

* * *

So, like, writing is fun.


	2. Maka2

_Maka [2]_

* * *

He took attendance.

Without once threatening to dissect them or singing her praises.

It was kind of nice, actually.

Unfortunately, a life time in Death City had taught her to expect the unexpected and distrust anyone who seemed too normal.

She spent most of roll call trying to place his face. After that incident with their last new teacher, she had read up on everything she could about people from her father's generation.

She wasn't even sure if this new instructor was old enough for that.

Hair sure was red though.

"Where did Professor Stein stop before you went on break?"

A simple question.

Her hand shot up almost instantly, but hers wasn't the only one.

"It'll come out of the socket like that…"

She ignored her partner's smart comment over her attempts to stick her arm up even higher. It hurt, just a little, but that wasn't reason enough for her to stop… not while there was a battle being fought!

"Albarn."

Her chest swelled(she wished) as she was called upon. He even remembered her name which was, hopefully, a good sign.

"Chapter eleven, sir."

Even with his glasses on, she could tell from the way his eyebrows were knit together when he looked back that Ox wasn't pleased she'd been picked over him. She fought to keep from grinning while she could still feel their new teacher's gaze on her.

"I see. We'll start by reviewing that then."

And that was that.

The rest of the period was spent going over what they had before break. There was no veering wildly off topic, no threats, not even any indication that their teacher was interested in anything beyond doing his job.

It was probably the most normal first period she'd ever had.

* * *

"He's _weird_."

"He is _not_."

Lunchtime.

As was typical, she and her partner had fled to somewhere they could eat in relative peace away from a certain someone. Today that meant the roof. Their friends had even decided to join them which meant that, for once, conversation wasn't limited to trading barbs. Of course, when the subject of their new teacher came up…

"He was a professional!" She could tell her partner had a different opinion though from the look he gave her.

"Did he even tell us his name?"

She paused. Well, no, he hadn't… Still! There were a lot of reasonable explanations for that. She opened her mouth, but was beaten to the punch by their headmaster's son.

"You would prefer another maniac?" The irony was almost palpable as Kid brought out his ruler and protractor in order to best decide how he should eat his sandwich.

"I'm saying that he probably _is_ a maniac and is hiding it. He'll wait until we all start to think he's the sane one and, bam, out comes the toe nail collection."

She regretted not packing an apple. It would've been something to bean her partner in the head with. "Shut up! I like him." It wasn't like there were a lot of positive male figures in her life… in fact, there weren't any that she could wholeheartedly said she approved of.

"…like, huh?"

…she should've thought more about what she said as her partner gave her that smug look.

"Hot for teacher, huuUGH!"

She didn't hold back that time. A full-power Maka-Chop shut him up good. "It's not like that, idiot!" Honestly, if his mind ever got out of the gutter…! She took a bite out of her sandwich, chewing angrily while trying to ignore the painful stinging in her cheeks.

That should have been the end of it…

"An older man, Maka?" "Oh my…" "Hehehehe, Maka's naughty!"

The other girls couldn't let such a saucy bit of gossip go though. Tsubaki didn't really believe it(probably), but the other two… The way Liz was looking at her made her feel like a cornered rat.

"You know, men aren't like boys." The elder Thompson started.

"I-iknow!" She didn't actually. She really, really didn't.

"Oh, so you do… Must have been some of those books huh?"

Die. She wanted to die. The scythe meister felt like her cheeks were on fire and there was no one around to help put them out. Her partner was far too amused by this to stop it, Tsubaki seemed far too flustered by the things being suggested to speak, Kid was caught up with his sandwich, and…

Why was that reverse-ninja just staring off into space like that? Something about his vacant look was making her uneasy…

"That doesn't make sense."

He spoke, but she didn't understand. He was probably going to say something like 'There's no way a goodie-two-shoes like her knows about that kind of stuff' which she was perfectly happy with him thinking.

"If he was gonna bang one of his students, Tsubaki would make way more sense."

Her brain shut down.

It was hard processing so much… _awful_ …in a single sentence. She couldn't even bring herself to hit him for what he'd said since the kunoichi was already handling that. She glanced down at herself, found the same disappointing figure staring her back, and slumped. She didn't have any retort for that. She just wanted to throw herself over the side of the railing and let it all end.

"Good afternoon."

Though she wouldn't have thought it possible, everything just got a hundred times worse.

She wasn't surprised that Liz stopped talking, that everyone stopped talking, given who it was.

Maka was pretty sure she'd done something pretty terrible in a past life. That or, much more likely, the universe just hated her.

Their teacher, the same one that her 'friends'(LIKEHELL) had just implied she wanted to do _activities_ with, had somehow made it onto the roof without any of them noticing. Even a couple of trained ninjas.

Well, it was probably a bit easier to get by them when one was as flustered as she was and the other was pulling a shuriken out of his thick skull.

As humiliated as she felt about the whole thing though, she couldn't help but find it odd that he hadn't said anything more.

It wouldn't have been unreasonable of him to give detention out for showing so much disrespect or, at the very least, to set the record straight. Instead, he didn't even seem to be acknowledging their presence.

"See?" Her partner whispered. "He's _weird_!"

She silenced him with an elbow to the gut, but couldn't bring herself to disagree. His reaction, or rather lack of a reaction, was the opposite of what she'd come to expect as typical. He just moved to the railing and stood there wordlessly looking out over the city.

Who was he?

Someone not from her father's generation… What if he really was just some normal person? Hire a regular teacher that wouldn't try to kill them or veer wildly off topic because of their eccentric nature.

She had a way of finding out the truth. The power to perceive another's soul and, by extension, their true self. It was more than a little invasive of her though to go looking at other people's souls though. She remembered how violated she'd felt when Stein had done it to her and her friends. Still, if her teacher really was just a normal person… it wasn't like he'd ever find out, right? It was a victimless crime.

She concentrated.

Her friends' souls appeared first to her, but those weren't the ones she was interested in. She stared at the back of the redheaded man hoping to learn just a little about the newest person to be entrusted with their education.

What she saw was a whole lot of static.

It wasn't like their headmaster who simply appeared, at least to her, not to even have one… there was a soul there, but the more she concentrated on it the less clear it became. A dull pain in the back of her head seemed to be trying to tell her to stop, but, as usual, she ignored that and pushed forward trying to uncover at least the reason why she was having trouble. As if in a response to her effort, the pain grew worse. "Nghk…!" It felt like something was pushing her eyeballs out from the inside.

She tried one last time, one last attempt to perceive her teacher's soul, and… She sucked in a breath as she squeezed her eyes shut as it felt like something in her head 'popped'.

That was new.

She cracked open an eye, trying to ignore the lingering pain in her skull, and found her teacher looking back at her. She froze. He'd turned around to look at her and there was something about that vacant stare that made her feel very, very small.

It made her feel like she'd been caught cheating, really.

Her teacher walked back, towards the door leading to the stairs down from the roof, and spared one final glance back at her before he vanished through it.

"…a…Ka….MAKA!"

It was probably a full minute later that she realized that her partner had been calling her name and shaking her.

"Jeez, what the hell happened to you?"

She couldn't really say, honestly.

"Soul."

"Yeah? Going to explain to me what all that was about?"

She swallowed. She couldn't really put it into words, but…

"He _is_ weird."

She found herself agreeing with her partner's previous assessment of their teacher now.

* * *

So, like, writing is still fun. Hope you guys enjoy.


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